Wide World of Gaming: Global Gaming, From Australia to Zimbabwe

Ever wonder how many slot machines there are in all of Africa? Parking spots at the only legal casino in Malaysia? Electronic bingo games in Central America?

The answers: 30,297; 7,289; and 154, respectively.

Those, and many more intriguing numbers—including estimates of revenue, where available, by country and region—are included in the 2013 edition of Casino City’s Global Gaming Almanac. It’s the seventh edition of this international guidebook from a company that has delved deeper than most into the vast and varied world of gaming.

For tribal officials wanting to learn more about the global market, financial, legal and regulatory information about land-based and online gambling in 200 regions and jurisdictions around the world, it’s all here in a text-heavy volume that comes in at just under 670 pages. That includes a section listing more than 300 gaming property owners worldwide, along with their contact information, just in case you want to get in touch.

There are interesting charts and graphs sprinkled throughout, including sports betting growth, by region, from 2008 to 2011. And fun facts galore—the Royal Commission in Western Australia in 1972 granted bingo permits to religious and charitable organizations, reasoning that “legislating and regulating bingo would satisfy individuals’ desires for gambling while both supporting worthy causes and protecting the population from the criminal elements often associated with gambling.” But the most fascinating data, as always, are revenues. Yes, there’s a lot of money in gaming. Who knew?

No one can be an expert on every casino in the world, but the publishers of this almanac try to offer the most complete information possible, highlighting a whopping 4,200 gaming properties. It’s a lot to take in, and the details—like the aforementioned parking space highlights—can sometimes lead the reader to wonder who on Earth really needs to know all this stuff.

Even with everything included in this tome, American commercial and tribal gaming is not covered in it, so you’ll need another book for that. (Casino City sells separately its Indian Gaming Industry Report.)

The print edition is available with a CD version of the almanac that offers a spreadsheet tool enabling custom gaming property marketplace analysis by geographic area and by type of gaming facility along with a MapPoint file displaying every gaming property in the world geographically on a map. More than 160 annual reports of gaming businesses based outside North America are also provided on the CD along with a PDF version of the almanac.

The volume with CD sells online at CasinoCityPress.com for $1,199.95.

Casino City has granted ICTMN permission to feature the following information from the almanac:

—Indian gaming revenue nationwide grew 3.4% in 2011 to approximately $27.4 billion, marking the second straight year of growth since the end of the Great Recession.